Marsh settles four lawsuits

With only an apology from Stanley Marsh 3 made public, the parties in four lawsuits alleging imprisonment, sexual misconduct and harassment of teens agreed to settle the case.

"Through this litigation it has been made clear to me that my conduct directed toward these young people was inappropriate, and I apologize for anything I said or did that may have caused them anguish," Marsh said, according to a statement released by the law firm of Whittenburg, Whittenburg and Schachter.

"That is what the parties agreed upon as a public statement," said Mack Whittenburg, an attorney at the firm. "There will be an agreed motion to dismiss but this is all that is going to be made public."

Marsh, 63, confirmed Wednesday that the lawsuit had been settled, but said he could not discuss the case.

"I can't make any comment on that. It's a sealed settlement, and that means I can't comment on that," he said.

Marsh's attorneys have previously argued whatever actions their client might have committed were not done with the intent of harming the plaintiffs. Attorney Kelly Utsinger did not return a Wednesday phone call for comment.

Marsh has previously said the dispute stems from a long-running feud between the Marsh and Whittenburg families, two of Amarillo's more prominent families who made millions of dollars in the oil and gas industry.

The lawsuits began as one action filed in August 1995 by Ben Whittenburg who was then a senior at Amarillo High School. Other plaintiffs joined the suit over the years, but Senior District Judge John Forbis severed the case into four on April 20, 2000. The four cases involved:

n Ben Whittenburg's accusations of Marsh confining him in a chicken coop while wielding a hammer, then humiliating him by taking and distributing photographs of him in the coop.

"Mr. Marsh, himself, took pictures of me in the pen and told me to smile while he cussed at me," Ben Whittenburg said in an affidavit. "He said that my mother was 'trash.' I was really scared."

n Blake Junell's and Jerry Wilhite's allegation that they were coerced into skinny-dipping with Marsh and his male friends in a pond on Marsh property west of Amarillo. They alleged Marsh then read poetry at the end of a day of working for him as punishment for stealing at least one of the unusual signs he has placed in the Amarillo area.

The coercion arose from Marsh's "obscene and tyrannical ranting and raving about how he would run their names on his television station as 'thieves,' " according to court documents.

n Don Wright's claim that Marsh fired him after Wright rebuffed his homosexual advances. In a deposition, Wright said Marsh asked him to go to his office to watch pornographic movies while masturbating, according to court documents.

n Jodi Parker's accusation that Marsh and his associates in clown wigs and Lone Ranger masks terrorized her when they came to her family's home looking for one of her stepbrothers.

Criminal charges arose out of some of the same incidents. Marsh pleaded no contest in March 1998 to two misdemeanors - unlawful restraint and criminal trespassing. In exchange, special prosecutor John Mann dropped five felony charges, including kidnapping, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and three counts of indecency with a child.

Senior Judge Don Lane sentenced Marsh to pay a $4,000 fine and serve 10 days in jail, but allowed Marsh to perform community service without serving his nights in jail.